12-12-14

THINK WIN-WIN 

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

12/15  Grade 2 Math PD
12/15  Negotiations
12/15  Leadership
12/17  BTSA
12/18  Board Topics and Updates Due
12/19  Jimbo's Lunch at the District Office
12/22  YAHOO!! WINTER BREAK!

SYNERGIZE 

*Thank you to Nancy and Tom for hosting yet another wonderful Holiday Party!  So much fun-and so many incredibly thoughtful ornaments!
*Huge Kudos to Cara and Katy who continue to hit home runs with their Math PD days!  TK/K, and 1st grade days were very well received!
*Thank you Lisa P for those YUMMY treats at Leadership-(Sal, did you get some of your favorite chips?)
*Kudos to all of our Computer Discovery Lab Instructors for participating in Hour of Code-Our students are loving it!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

Tips to Survive as a Principal
Like the 4C's?  Try the 8P's!
7 Ways to Keep Others From Squeezing the Life Out of You
Edutopia's Top 10 of 2014 

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

Why Math Might be the Secret to School Success
20 Tips for 20% Time in Your Classroom

Coding for Kindergartners!
The 10 Most Popular Teaching Tools of 2014 
BIG List of Resources for Student Engagement

Hmmmm...Common Core Mathematics for teachers!

BE PROACTIVE

SHARPEN THE SAW

Great Report on The Changing Role of a Principal 

11-21-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

Enjoy Your Break Next Week!  We have so much to be thankful for!

12/1  Leadership (Who would like to do snacks!?)
12/3  BTSA
12/4  New Principal Meeting
12/5  Ed Coalition
12/5  Holiday Party @ Nancy's (Thank You Nancy & Tom)

SYNERGIZE 

*AMAZING!! Katy and Cara did an AMAZING job planning and facilitating the New and Improved Math PD days this week!  Loved this quote from a 3rd grade teacher, "This day will improve my math instruction ten-fold!  What a valuable day!  Thank You!"
*Thank You to Angie for coordinating and supporting the Apple PD days!
*Thank you to Melani for restocking the snacks for each of the PD days-The grapes were delicious!
*Kudos to Terry Decker and Carlos for holding down the fort this week!  Smooth sailing!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

Gratitude Can Fuel School Transformation

Flipping Staff Development (Staff Meeting Content too!) Great article on how to extend learning past the presentation!

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

8 Ways to Foster Gratitude in Your Students
9 Ways to Teach Mistakes
27 Things to Do When Students Aren't Engaged 

Beyond SAMR-One Teachers Journey to Integrate Technology

BE PROACTIVE

10 Best Ted Talks for Educators-2014

SHARPEN THE SAW

11-14-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

11/17  Apple PD
11/17  Leadership-Thank you Carlos for Snacks!
11/18  Apple PD
11/18  Math PD Grade 3
11/18  ELD Meeting
11/19  Math PD Grade 4
11/19  BTSA
11/20  Math PD Grade 5
11/20  Board Topics and Board Updates due
11/21  Math PD Grade 6
11/21  CDC Thanksgiving Feast

SYNERGIZE 

*Another Great Week of Walkthroughs!  Congratulations to Solana Pacific, Solana Santa Fe and Solana Ranch!  Elisa, Becky and Jerry should be very proud of the amazing work that is happening at your sites-our teachers are really "shifting" their instruction to implement the new State Standards and provide our students with opportunities for depth and complexity in their learning. I had a blast Tweeting out real time highlights of each visit-check them out #sbsdedu

*WOW!!! A big round of applause to all of our Sites for their progress on their STREAM Year 1 Implementation Plans.  Our Envision Committee meeting was a huge success.  Each site is doing a fabulous job providing STREAM opportunities for our students!  We had the opportunity to hear from each school and to share all of the exciting things that are happening across the district.

*A special thank you to Jeff Busby for all of his years of service to the Solana Beach School District-We appreciate all that you have done for our students!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

18 Things that Great Principals Do Differently

13 Educators You Should be Following on Twitter

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers
6 Rules to Break for Better
Delivering Differentiated Instruction in your Classroom-It's not just about acceleration!

BE PROACTIVE

3 Tedx Talks from Kids Doing Amazing Things

SHARPEN THE SAW

30 Attention-grabbing techniques, so you don't have to do this...

11-7-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

11/10&11/11 Happy Veteran's Day
11/12 Walkthroughs continue at Solana Pacific-Team 2 (Elisa, Becky and Terri)
11/12  Envision Committee Meeting
11/13  Walkthrough @ Solana Santa Fe-Team 3 (Jerry and Lisa P)
11/13  School Board Meeting
11/14  Walkthrough @ Solana Ranch-Team 1 (Lisa D, Lisa R, Matt)
11/9    Congratulations to the Mother of the Bride!

SYNERGIZE 

*What a great week of Walkthroughs!  Thank you to all of the staff members at SV, SKY, SH and CC!  Such amazing things happening at all of our schools! Check out our tweets (#sbsdedu) highlighting some of the highlights!

*Kudos to Katy and Cara for a Fabulous Math Committee Meeting.  The prep from the day before's work group set the stage nicely for the meeting and as we plan for the future Math PD days!
*Thank you to John, Caroline and Tech for working with us to get the Core APP list resolved and put into place!
*A great big thank you to Monica for working with SDCOE to get all of the Eureka math materials printed!  Whew!  What a task!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

The Disease of Being Busy...Something to think about for us and for our kids!
The Life of a Project -A great summary of the foundation of true STREAM Units-Project Based Learning (PBL)
9 Ways to Plan Transformational Lessons-Are you seeing these shifts in your classrooms?

I would suggest that we are in "the dip" with our New Progress Report-and that's OK-Because I know that by the end of the year, we will see the Possibilities of the Curve!  Our job is to support our teachers as they move through this change.

ASCD Article on Standards Based Grading

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers
15 Reasons Why I Teach

6 Ways to Save Time Using Technology

BE PROACTIVE

SHARPEN THE SAW

One of my "most favorite" quotes!!

10-31-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

11/3  Leadership (Lyn Perino here to debrief Strategic Planning)
11/4  Walkthroughs begin-Team 2 (Elisa, Becky, Terri D) to Solana Vista
11/5  Walkthrough-Team 1 (Lisa D, Lisa R, Matt) to Skyline
11/5  BTSA
11/6  Walkthrough-Team 3 ( Jerry, Lisa P) to Solana Highlands
11/6  Math Committee Mtg 3:30-5:30
11/7  Walkthrough-Team 1 to Carmel Creek
11/10 & 11/11 Holiday!!

SYNERGIZE 

*Kudos to Cara, Angie and Ellen Leventhall for an outstanding presentation at Fall CUE!  They represented out district well and really gave teachers concrete examples of What App Smashing is and how easy it is to do with students!
*Thank you to Jo for being diligent about making sure that our primary (especially Kinder) has the apps that they need
*Major applause to Terry Decker for being flexible and redesigning the Math PD days to give our teachers some much needed time to collaborate about math instruction in their classrooms.
*Thank You to Carlos, Sal, Terry Decker, Terri Davis and Elisa for serving on the negotiations team-such a tough job!  We appreciate you!
*Yahoo to Stephanie for coordinating two fabulous Joint Job-A-Like days for our Discovery Lab Instructors!
*Another great Secretary/Clerk Job-A-Like was facilitated by Caroline this week!
*Congratulations to all of the DO staff for making the CDC Halloween Parade so much fun for the Preschoolers!  (Actually, I'm not sure who had more fun-the children or the staff!?)

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

Why Teaching Kindness in Schools is Essential to Reduce Bullying 
How to Develop the People You Really Want... 

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

5 Ways to Improve Your Learning Space 
10 Things That All Educators Should Commit To

"The grade is what you know at the end, not what it took to get there!"

BE PROACTIVE 

"Less homework does not equal less rigor. And more doesn't mean more!" 

If you haven't checked out "Cybraryman.com" you should!  Jerry Blumengarten has a page on EVERYTHING!!  Here is the link to his  "My Administrators & Technology Page!"  Check it out!

SHARPEN THE SAW

10-10-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

10/11  Teacher of the Year Event-Congratulations Monica Rainville!
10/13  Leadership-Thank You Terri Davis for providing us snacks!
10/14  Strategic Planning SR
10/14  Ladies golf lessons begin! 6:00 @ The Crossings
10/15  Julie to Skyline for Progress Report Teacher Q&A
10/15  BTSA
10/15  Progress Report Parent Information Night at Skyline
10/16  Progress Report Parent Information Night at Solana Pacific
10/16  Julie to Solana Santa Fe for Progress Report Teacher Q&A
10/16  Math K-2 PD
10/17  Math K-2 PD
Whew!! Another busy week in SBSD!

SYNERGIZE 

•Congratulations to Matt, Elisa and Lisa P!  EduAwesome Strategic Planning days this week!  The presentations were amazing and everyone is so excited about the work that is happening at each school! 
•Kudos to Terry Decker for his PowerPoint & Voice Over on the Progress Report Video!  I see an Academy Award in your future!  We make a great team!
•Hooray for Stephanie and Katy on receiving Permanent Status!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

8 Characteristics of an Innovator's Mindset 
Why Growth Mindset is the Only Way to Learn 
Building Positive School Culture-20 Ideas from Principals

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

Travel the World-9 Great Apps for Virtual Field Trips
Metacognition, The Gift that Keep Giving
What Students Really Remember about their teachers!

BE PROACTIVE

Great grant opportunity for your teachers!  SD Foundation Grant Info

"Great Teachers embrace learning rather than teaching as the fundamental purpose of the school."

STREAM ENERGY UNIT HAPPENINGS!

SHARPEN THE SAW

Love the Kid President-He's back!!!  20 Things that you should say more often!

A great example of "Fair doesn't mean equal-it means getting what you need to be successful!"

10-3-14

THINK WIN-WIN

Who are you going to be a Champion for this next week?

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

10/6  Site Strategic Planning Solana Highlands
10/6  Leadership-Snacks provided by Caroline
10/7  Site Strategic Planning Solana Pacific
10/7  Classified and Certificated Forums
10/8  Site Strategic Planning Solana Vista
10/9  District Advisory Forum
10/9  School Board Meeting-All attend-Recognition for our Permanent teachers
10/11 Teacher of the Year-Congratulations Monica Rainville!

SYNERGIZE 

*Yahoo!  Check it off!  Skyline, Solana Santa Fe and Carmel Creek all had EduAwesome Site Strategic Planning Days! Incredible presentations and amazing participation!
*Congratulations to Lisa Ryder who hosted her first official Staff Meeting Thursday night.  STREAM Activities, fun little Second Step characters (I can't remember what they are called) everywhere!  What fun they have at the preschool!
*Thank you to the Katy and Cara for helping me finalize the new Progress Report FAQ.  Word on the street is that it has been very helpful to teachers.
*Speaking of TOSA's-The principals loved having you at our Leadership meeting.  Everyone was so impressed with all that you are doing and all that you have to offer our teachers.  THANK YOU!!
*Thank you to Caroline for working so diligently with me to get the Progress Reports and all of the supporting documentation out to teachers.  So many little details!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

*Two Secrets to Staff Motivation 
*The Homework Myth-Author, Alfie Kohn, gives us food for thought...Does Homework benefit students.  Watch this YouTube Video for homework!
*How to create a Bully Free Environment 
*Mind the Gap (...it's bigger than you think)  Ways to help you lead change in your schools.

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

How to build your Personal Learning Network? Check out Cybrary Man's recommendation of who to follow on Twitter.

BE PROACTIVE

"Being positive in a negative situation is not naive.  It's leadership!"

"My teacher thought I was smarter than I actually was.  So I was!'

Awesome Quote from a 6 year old

SHARPEN THE SAW

9-26-14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

9/29  Kick Off Energy Unit in the Discovery Labs
9/29  Site Strategic Planning SKY
9/29  Principal Leadership Meeting Click Here for Agenda

9/30  Site Strategic Planning SSF
10/1  BTSA mtg.
10/2  Site Strategic Planning CC
10/3  Pelican Radio Check @ 1:30

SYNERGIZE 

*Thank You to Melani for coordinating the registration for the STEM conference-I think everyone had a great two days!  Such an exciting topic!
*Thank you to all of our Discovery Lab teachers/instructors for their energy (pun intended), excitement and hard work getting ready for our kick off unit.  Our students are so very lucky-I can't wait to see and hear about all of their wonderful discoveries! And a Big Hooray for Stephanie for working with all of the schools and all of the instructors to prepare for Monday!
*Good Luck to Lisa D, Becky and Terri D as they put on the final touches for their Strategic Planning days!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

•Check out Kevin Honeycutt's Video What's would your 30 second legacy be?  Do you have the courage to film it?

•Reasons Why I Love my Job 
•5 Ways to be a Great Teammate

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

•Great article on 7 Ways to stop the Parent-Child Power Struggle Over Homework
•7 Questions to ask Parents at the Beginning of the Year

•It's Time to Stop Averaging Grades...
•Is Your Gradebook Supportive of Student Learning?

BE PROACTIVE

•Please send your DELAC representative name and contact information to Melani.  Our first meeting is scheduled for December 8. 

•We will be talking about Walkthrough process and protocol on Monday at the Principal Leadership meeting.  Please bring anything (ideas or documents) that will help us design the perfect process for us as we add teachers to our group.

STREAM is everywhere at our schools!  Don't forget that the Kick Off Integrated Unit on Energy begins Monday-Remember to ask your students, "What did you discover today?"

SHARPEN THE SAW

Sir Ken Robinson-Why Happiness is So Important!

9/19/14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

9/22-STEM Symposium-You might want to consider Carpooling-Parking is limited and expensive
9/22- October Board updates and topics due
9/23- STEM Symposium
9/23- Site Tech Job-A-Like
9/24-Site Strategic Planning Dress Rehearsal
9/25-TOSA meeting
9/26-Ed Coalition Meeting

SYNERGIZE 

*Thank you to Susan Jensen and all of the members of the Insurance Committee for their commitment to this very important task!
*Thank you to Angie and Jo for taking the time to listen to possible future ideas regarding maximizing home to school communication!
*Hugs to Katy and Cara for fielding all of the questions and concerns re: Eureka Math-Not to mention delivering material directly to teachers-Such Service!  Speaking of lifting boxes-Katy, I'm sure you are NOT lifting heavy things-right? (hint, hint...)
*Kudos to Patti Malmuth, Stephanie A. and 2 parents from SP who met this last week to outline a 5 week communication plan to send out to parents each week highlighting STREAM! (So excited about this marketing tool AND that they are willing to share with all schools!)
*Hooray to all of our teachers who attended the Apple PD this past week!  So much to learn!
*Thank you to Jerry and Elisa who agreed to help me plan our first Principal PLC meeting on September 29!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

•12 Powerful Ways to Make People Feel Powerful-Great article on Shared Leadership
•10 Tips to keep in mind when providing Staff Development (Great advice for all of us who consider ourselves Instructional Leaders)
•Interesting Article-Maybe Fun and Grit are Related? 

 SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

•12 Rules the Best Teachers Live By 
•9 Tips for Teacher to Make This Your Best School Year Yet!  Great embedded videos to illustrate the Tips!
• To make learning fun for our kids, we need to meet them where they are -True differentiation!  Great video for your Tech Reluctant staff 

BE PROACTIVE

So True!!  Every child deserves that we always "Bring our Best!"

A Rendering of Earl Warren Middle School-WOW!!

I Believe!
Do You Believe?

SHARPEN THE SAW

Love this Analogy!!

The First Twitter??



Modern Twitter!!

9/12/14

THINK WIN-WIN

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST 

9/15  Leadership (Lisa Ryder has snacks) 
9/15  International Dot Day-Celebrate Creativity, Courage and Collaboration!
9/16 & 9/17 Apple PD @ the District Office-Don't forget to Sharpen you Saw-this Professional Development opportunity is not just for our teachers!  Come and learn right along side of your staff!  Be the change you want to see...You get the point-We'd love to have you join us for one of the two days!
9/16 Strategic Planning Office Hours
9/17 BTSA meeting @ 3:30
9/18 Insurance Committee Mtg.
9/18 Wellness Committee Mtg.
9/18  "New" Principal Meeting @ 3:30
9/19  Strategic Planning PowerPoints due to Terry Decker

SYNERGIZE 

•A HUGE Shoutout to Terry Decker for all of his thoughtful and hard work preparing the District Strategic Planning Day!  A great day for our district!
•And how 'bout those TOSA's!  OUTSTANDING presentation Katie, Cara and Stephanie!  You absolutely nailed your presentations! 
•And we all know that behind every good video are amazing Tech people who make us look good!  Kudos to Jo and Angie for all of your support and behind the scenes effort-not to mention integrating Today's Meet into the meeting!
•Thank you to Sal for getting the interview dates on the calendar early-Now that's early planning-Thank you Matt (or was it Jerry?-I know it was one of our male principals!) for making the suggestion!
•Thank you to Caroline and Jenny for working on re-sending the NWEA passwords-So sorry that your dept. had to double back on this one!
•Kudos to all of our Principal's for their short and sweet Board presentations on the opening of school! I heard that you were all FAB!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Instructional Leaders

*Wanna boost your PLN?  The top 25 educators on Twitter!
*Great Quotes to emphasize Growth Mindset! 
*3 EduAwesome Images on Leading Change 
*Jerry Blumengarten @cybraryman is a wealth of information and collection of   Educational Web Sites-Great page on Leadership 

SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Blogs/Articles/Videos for Teachers

*Think Pedagogy First, Technology Second

*Very Timely article about the First 5's with iPads! First 5 minutes, First 5 Days...Great reminders as we distribute those devices in our 1:1 classrooms!
*40+ New Teacher Resources (again, I would argue that this is a great resource for ALL teachers!)

BE PROACTIVE

Wonder for the day...Why do crops need to be rotated?  If you and your teachers are not checking out the daily wonders at Wonderopolis.org, you are really missing out on daily opportunities to inspire curiosity and thinking in our students! You also can follow them on twitter-@wonderopolis 

"We are ALL influencers whether we want to acknowledge that or not. The question is; Are you a positive or negative influencer?"

Dr. Justin Tarte

@justintarte

"Sometimes our Stop-Doing list needs to be bigger than our To-Do list!"

Patti Digh

"Outstanding principals know that if they have great teachers, then they have a great school!"

Todd Whitaker

@Toddwhitaker

SHARPEN THE SAW